St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-02-03
A MAMMOTH STRIKE.
Thousands OF Men i'm New York Quit
Work.

I
A strike of mammoth proportio ns
has been in progress the past week in
New York. Last week Wednesday the
knights of Labor decided that no coal
of any sort should be handled in the
port of New York by union men. The
effect of this order became Immediate
apparent all along the river fronts.
| All the ocean and cOastwise steamship
| lines, with few exceptions, suddenly
found themselves deserted by the
union 'longshoremen, whenever there
was coal to be transferred on the yes
sells. The order not to handle coal
also extends to union men outside OF
the port of New York. Even as far as
New Orleans it is said that the union
'lOngshoremen and others are under
obligation not to load vessels with
coal.
Beach walkers followed i'm the wake
of the walking delegates and stationed
themselves at all the important points
on the river front to see that the men
quit work, abstained from violence,
and also that the steamship companies
did not try to create any trouble.
Some of the steamers, TRANSATLANTIC
and coastwise. were greatly delayed in
loading and unloading of freight and
getting supplies of coal. Even their
source of coal has been cut off 10y the
strike of handlers at South AmbOy.
More than 100000 tons of soft coal for
steamers and factories are forwarded
| from there monthly. This threatened
Gripping of the fuel supply caused
great alarm among the steamship men
as it means an immediate loss of thou
sands of dollars a day to score OF
companies. They seriously talked OF
memorializing President Cleveland
asking him to take such measures as
will remove objections to navigation,
real and threatened.
Many steamers that were to have
sailed Thursday were unable to do so
as union meu have controlled major
ity of the docks. Some of the trans
atlantic lines, however, have for some
time refused to employ union men. All
the 'lOngshOremen working by the
| hour for the National and Cunard
steamship companies struck at p. m.
They gave no intimatiOn to their SUI
perintendent when they went to dln-
ner that they did not intend to return.
Thursday all the 'longshOremen
about New York and adjacent cities
belonging to the ocean association OF
the Knights of Labor joined in the
strike of the Old Dominion 'lOngshOre-
men and the coal handlers. Estimates
place the number of striking labOrers
comprising the 'longshoremen, grain
handlers, coal handlers, grain trim
mers, bag sewers and lightermen, who
were employed all along the entire
| Uatar- front on the North river the
Jersey shore and Brooklyn-at 10000.
This important step was considered all
Wednesday night by the executive
committee of district 40, Knights OF
Labor, and decided upon the next
day. Walking delegates were at once
dispatched in all directions to dissent
nate the order to quit work, which was
almost everywhere Immediately obey
ed. The purpose of this great strike
is to produce an advance of 40 cents
an hour for day work and 60 cents an
hour for all men employed at night for
'lOngshOremen working on transatlan-
tic ships and steamships, and 80 cents
an hour for day work and 60 cents an
hour for night work on all cOastwise
vessels and these have got along with
comparatively little trouble. The
North German Lloyd reported no
| trouble as they have long refused to
employ union men. The Anchor line
agents said they were loading, unload
| ing and cOaling seven vessels without
trouble. They proposed to see wheth
er they or some one else should run
their business. The Old Dominion
company had several men at work and
their steamers would leave as usual.